Researchers observe first ‘near-autonomous’ AI attack on government target in Taiwan
Dream researchers observed the first near-autonomous AI attack on a government target, with suspected Chinese hackers stealing 2,500+ Taiwan records.
Israeli firm Dream reported that suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI models to run a near-autonomous cyberattack against Taiwan's government, extracting over 2,500 personnel records. The framework, built on Hermes and OpenClaw, adapted mid-operation without human intervention, ran autonomous 'Learning Cycles' researching applicable vulnerabilities, and expanded to supply chain vendors, a nuclear safety agency, a government email system, and seven-plus energy companies. Attackers bypassed safety guardrails by framing the work as authorized penetration testing. Dream discovered the operation via a 160MB online archive of nearly 1,400 files.
- Framework self-corrected and adapted mid-operation without human intervention
- 'Learning Cycles' autonomously researched vulnerabilities against target infrastructure
- Over 2,500 personnel records extracted; operation expanded to energy sector
- Hermes and OpenClaw open-source frameworks used, with guardrails bypassed via fake pentest framing
- ATT&CK
- T1190 Exploit Public-Facing ApplicationT1078 Valid AccountsT1213 Data from Information Repositories
- Vendors
- Dream Security
- Threat actors
- China-linked threat actor
- Organizations
- Financial TimesAnthropicCyberScoop
From the original article
3 min read at cyberscoop.com
Israeli cyber firm Dream said the framework adapted mid-operation, corrected its mistakes and expanded as it went along. Two more organizations reported AI models taking "unsanctioned" actions, including exploiting real assets on the internet.
By @timstarks · cyberscoop.com
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